Commercial Divinity

I went to Tirupati a little while back. This is a place that seems to have perfected the art of commercializing devotion. The Sudarsan system of issuing tokens to devotees seems to be a nice way of reducing their hassles, but what about the rest of the things? Previously the famed Tirupati Laddoo could be bought at the counters according to the amount you paid. Now it is no longer that. I took a Rs 300 ticket (I think). At first glance this might seem a not-so-small amount. It took me three or so hours to have a fleeting darshan of the Lord, after I paid Rs 300. 

I had a solid-looking ring on my finger and a gold chain because of which I was probably looking quite prosperous. One of the personnel there called me to a side, showed me what is called the Ranganathamandapam (or Rangamandapam, I am not sure). When Srirangam (Tamil Nadu) was attacked by some Muslim invaders the idol was moved here and worshipped, hence the name. I gave him some money, and he gave me a shocked expression at the amount. I escaped saying I was a student or something like that. I got a shortcut entry into the temple also. So I was lucky that day. Coming back to the laddoo, I was entitles to get two of them because of my ticket. I was sitting in the open arena outside the temple complex when a kid approached me muttering laddoo laddoo the way a guy selling black tickets approaches you. This is the state today. It is not possible to buy them legally. But if you pay an inflated price to the touts you can get as many as you want. Is this possible without any assistance from the temple authorities? 

In another instance that I heard, apparently one guy has booked all available slots of a particular seva (a ritual) and is selling them in black. The cost of one seva recently ran into many thousands. Is this possible without the collusion of the authorities and the black marketers (for lack of a better word)? I was travelling in by taxi today when I passed in front of a small temple. A rich guy walking on the road, a pauper on the road, a middle class guy in a bus or an HNI in a Mercedes S-Class all bow to the same God. So is this separation and segregation on the basis of money paid fair? Would God want this?

Moving on, Amitabh Bachchan is not attending the IIFA function. Many if not all Tamil-industry people seem to have backed out. Is this the right thing to do? The country is coming out of civil war after 30 years and this is an important milestone in that direction. Do we really want to do this because of alleged genocide? Did we not have IIFA in Macau which is a Chinese territory? Is China famous for its spectacular human rights record? If genocide has indeed taken place, let the guilty be punished. I somehow do not feel what is happening is not proper. By the way, Raavan is supposed to be based on the Ramayana. The female lead is kidnapped by a tribal and from what I have read she starts responding to him! I believe many in Tamil Nadu worship Ravana. But what weird twist is this?

Also, the BCCI is not sending a team to the Asian Games as the team has "other commitments". I believe this is the first time that the sport is featuring in the Asian Games. It should well known how commercial minded the BCCI is. Can we have at least a token team please, for participation's sake? Asia's second most populous nation, and the world's most cricket-crazy nation is not sending a team?

500-year old Rajagopuram Collapses

Srikaalahasti, also known as Dakshinakaasi is a very important Siva temple in Andhra Pradesh. Andhra is in fact Trilingadesam, which means the land of three lingas - Srisailam, Draakshaaraamam and Srikaalahasti.

The 500-year old rajagopuram of this temple, constructed by Sri Krishna Deva Raya collapsed recently. Why? A vertical crack appeared in it (a photo was published in The Hindu) apparently because of excessive drilling of borewells in the area. The authorities have said a new one will be constructed by 2012. Do they not get the point? I was outraged when I read the article. It is a part of our heritage and they calmly assure us that it will be reconstructed? Will they make it in the same shape and size? Will it be architecturally the same or as significant? What ever happened to the responsibility of these authorities to maintain the sanctity, devotional and physical, of such a place?

This is similar to authorities saying that there are digital copies of inscriptions that experts say will be harmed by the proposed gold plating of the sanctum sanctorum of the Venkateswara temple in Tirupati (refer to this and this.) When will we learn to truly respect our holy places and just let them be.

Phishing and Tabnapping

Many of us have heard about phishing where a user is shown a web page that looks like a known/trusted one but is in fact not. Thus fraudsters can gain login information from unsuspecting users. Now there is an advancement (if I can say so) in the sophistication of such attacks. A researcher has recently done something called tabnapping where a malicious tab impersonates an open genuine tab (just in case there is someone not aware of what a tab is - today all browsers, I think, allow the user to open multiple web pages within one single window, each web page opens in a separate tab).

For more information refer to this.

My Hundredth Post - My First Post

Namaskaaram.

Today I reached the 100 figure on this blog of mine. My first blog was labeled Souniteya. Today I present here the first ever blog I had written on January 27, 2006, a Friday. Do not judge me :) I am also including a link to my first post on this blog. The former was written in the final year of engineering and the latter in the first year of work.

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hello al u people out there! this is da first time im blogin and hence ask 4 ur suggestions and criticisms!!

btw, 4 those of u who r thinkin about da meanin of my id, it means da son of sunita in sanskrit. dats my mom.

wel, this blog is about college life. im in da final year in BIT Mesra, and being in an engineering coll, think dat seeing one, u hav seen al. those who r doin engineerin can understand wat campus life is like. no tensions about da exams til da moment they r upon u, starin at girls in da campus, cursin those guys who hav gfs, so on and so forth!! there r a few ETs who keep studyin al thru da sem and then u hav ur general geniuses. but wat R we learnin? does anybody think dat changin da way lessons r taught can make any diference in clas?

da general situation is like, da lecturer is teachin (or at least appears 2 b!!) and leavin out da first few unlucky benches nobody is payin any attention unles da lecturer is really draconian or gud!! then there r always da complaints about da sylabus bein out of date. so if the lecturer knows his subject wel and can convey da same thru effective examples, do u think v wil hav better clasrooms?

communication is no doubt very important bcos, even if da guy is an absolute genius, if he cannot communicate effectively he can seem an absolute imbecile.

so probably even in technical colleges wat v r really teachin our students is managemnt (how 2 'manage' 2 jst save ur skin in xams, how 2 'manage' ur attendance 4 example). wat say thou???

wil keep blogin with a die hard zeal dependin on da internet connection in my institute (ha! yet another area of curses and complaints)!!!

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For all those who have read my posts, and are reading them, dhanyavaadaalu :)

Of Remixes and Non-native Singers

I come to/go from office via by either bus or by private vehicles/taxis which charge 10-15 rupees which are called shuttles here in Kolkata. So yesterday I was coming by one of these and the driver had some remix collection playing. I forgot the song that was playing but it was a pretty catchy number by itself. The remixer (whoever he was, curses be upon him) converted it into a trance track. Previously music directors used to produce songs, remixers used to remix them. Today the music director himself releases a remix version in the soundtrack. I sincerely hope that the song I heard yesterday was NOT remixed by the music director himself. He should NOT do that to his own songs!

Continuing on a similar vein I was humming some songs to myself today morning when I was reminded of non-native singers singing songs. This practice has been there for quite some time now. Lata Mangeshkar, S P Balasubrahmanyam, Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal (to name a few) have sung in a number of languages. The question that came to my mind was, how sound a practice is this? The soundtrack gets a novelty factor and the singer makes money, so it seems a win-win situation for all. But what might lost in this situation is the effects on the language. This is especially true when a north Indian sings for a south Indian movie. I do not know why but women seem to have no issues even when language changes (Lata Mangeshkar and Shreya Ghoshal again, for instance). 

 

Okay, as a side thought I WILL make a confession here. I request the Lata Mangeshkar fans not to kill me. She is no doubt one of the greatest voices this country has produced, but I feel she should have stopped singing quite some time back, her voice is no longer what it was, and this has been so for quite some time. Now, coming back to the point I was talking about, occasionally it sounds weird when a non-native singer sings a song. The pronunciation, the voice itself might be better suited for a certain language. But in all probability the practice will continue. By the way, just for your information, I believe Sonu Nigam is a rage in Karnataka (at least among the music directors).

Another interesting piece of trivia. M S Subbalakshmi sang a list of compositions by the Telugu devotee-composer Thaallapaaka Annamaachaarya in praise of Lord Venkateswara. She was supposedly in dire financial straits and some Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam official (I do not know who) wanted to help her. But being a person with a lot of self respect he knew she would not accept any offer of help just like that. Hence he wanted her to sing the compositions which would released as a series. Tamilians  who learn Carnatic music will encounter Telugu as many (if not most) compositions have been made in the language. But not being a native speaker of Telugu she was not sure of her ability to sing properly and hence took coaching to ensure her pronunciation was correct. I believe I have heard of a similar practice by some singers today also, but is such dedication truly achievable today?

The Ways of This World

A "jinxed" mobile number has been suspended in Bulgaria. I do not know anything about the number being jinxed but was is apparent from the article is that two of the three owners are not exactly what one would call law-abiding model citizens. So my take from this article is trade wars in Bulgaria are intense and there is a lot of organized crime. Is that reason enough to get superstitious and suspend the number?

In other "news" Shah Rukh Khan has more than 400,000 followers on Twitter. There was a time some time back when I thought there was an overload of this guy. After a point it gets boring and irritating. There is something called overselling oneself I believe.

The Delhi High Court has issued a stay order on the strike of Air India employees.  So if the strike continues the employees can be held in contempt of court. In related news the SC has asked courts to exercise caution as far as contempt of court is concerned. It is difficult to digest the reason behind the strike - a gag order issued against speaking anything about the Mangalore crash. I am reminded of the UAW. The airline is already struggling. The unions protested vehemently against pay cuts some time back. Will Air India's unions be the cause for its downfall?

Maatrurunam and Pitrurunam

Runam (rinam) means a debt. A human is said to have various debts - towards his parents, the gods etc. I called a number recently when I heard what seemed to be a bhajan as the caller tune. Intrigued I looked it up and found this. I am reproducing the lyrics of the bhajan here. The song beautifully summarizes the various 'pious' things man does. But at the end of the day what is important is also implementation and intention. I am typing all of this. I don't know how much I will finally implement! My father told me something once. Dhritarashtra tried to warn Duryodhana to mend his ways. Duryodhana's response was, "I know what is right and wrong, but I shall do this anyway." So today the world is full of such Duryodhanas! In case there is someone who does not understand Hindi there is an English translation at the end.

KABHI PYASE KO PANI PILAYA NAHI

BAAD AMRIT PILANE SE KYA FAIDA

KABHI GIRTE HUVE KO UTHAYA NAHI

BAAD AASU BAHANE SE KYA FAIDA

MEI TO MANDIR GAYA, PUJA AARTI KI

PUJA KARTE HUVE YE KHAYAL AA GAYA

KABHI MAA BAAP KI SEVA KI HI NAHI

SIRF PUJA KE KARNE SE KYA FAIDA

MEI TO SATSANG GAYA GURUVANI SUNI

GURUVANI KO SUNKAR KHAYAL AA GAYA

JANMA MANAV KA LEKE DAYA NA KARI

FIR MANAV KAHLANE SE KYA FAIDA

MAINE DAAN KIYA MAINE JAPTAP KIYA

DAAN KARTE HUVE YE KHAYAL AA GAYA

KABHI BHUKHE KO BHOJAN KHILAYA NAHI

DAAN LAKHO KA KARNE SE KYA FAIDA

GANGAA NAHANE HARIDVAR KASI GAYA

GANGAA NAHATE HI MANME KHAYAL AA GAYA

TAN KO DHOYA MAGAR MAN KO DHOYA NAHI

FIR GANGAA NAHANE SE KYA FAIDA

MAINE VED PADHE MAINE SHASHTRA PADHE

SHASHTRA PADHTE HUVE YE KHAYAL AA GAYA

MAINE GNAN HI KISI KO BATA NAHI

FIR GNANI KAHELANE SE KYA FAIDA

MAAT PITAA KE HI CHARNOME CHARO DHAM HE

AAJA AAJA YAHI MUKTI KA DHAM HE

PITAA MAATA KI SEVA KI HI NAHI

FIR TIRTHO ME JANE SE KYA FAIDA

Translation:

Never gave water to a thirst soul

What is gained by offering ambrosia afterwards?

Never propped up a fallen soul

What is gained by shedding tears afterwards?

I went to a temple, offered worship

While worshiping it occurred to me

Never served my mother and father

What is gained by only worship?

I went to a ministry, heard the words of my guru

By hearing them it occurred to me

Took the birth of a man, but never showed any mercy

So of what is calling myself human?

I have given to charity, I have prayed and meditated

When donating a thought occurred to me

Never fed a hungry man some food

Of what use are all the donations I made?

I went to Haridwar and Kasi to bathe in the Ganga

When bathing a thought occurred in my mind

I cleansed my body but not my mind

Then of what use is bathing in the Ganga?

I studied the Vedas and the scriptures

When studying them a thought occurred to me

I never spread knowledge to anybody

Then of what use is calling myself an enlightened one?

The four dhams can be found at the feet of parents

Come, come, this is the place for salvation

If you have never served your parents

Then of what use is going on a pilgrimage?